The Everfree Forest.
Ye Ziji floated high above the canopy, admiring his handiwork with deep satisfaction.
To his perception, the outer perimeter surrounding the abandoned castle was no longer a chaotic primeval forest, but a finely tuned instrument waiting to be played.
Every elemental node was a string.
Whenever he wished, he could strike them to unleash a signature elemental storm.
Just as he was basking in the confidence of total control…
A wisp of a wind element scout—the very first to set out—came stumbling back like an exhausted courier.
It had no physical form, remaining a mere current of air, yet Ye Ziji could clearly feel a sense of…
confusion radiating from it.
The first piece of news it brought back was so simple that Ye Ziji thought his senses were playing tricks on him.
“What do you mean that Alicorn is really sad??”
Ye Ziji froze for a second, then furrowed his brow, staring in bewilderment at the swirling current beside him.
“Sad?”
“Are you sure the word you want is ‘sad’? Not ‘furious’ or ‘frenzied’?”
The wisp of wind element couldn’t answer in words.
It could only convey that same pure, unadulterated sensation of sorrow once more.
Immediately after, more wind element scouts returned from every direction.
What they brought back was no longer a single isolated emotion, but a vague, dynamic picture assembled from countless fragments of information.
Ye Ziji closed his eyes, submerging his perception completely into this ocean of data.
Gradually, he “saw” the scene described by the wind elements.
The abandoned castle was the exact place he had seen earlier.
But on the broken, dilapidated throne that had once belonged to a princess sat a silent figure—Nightmare Moon.
Her night-black armor emitted no murderous intent whatsoever.
Her nebula-like mane and tail merely flowed in a slow, unconscious rhythm, devoid of the slightest aggression.
She simply sat there motionless, like a statue carved from obsidian that had been forgotten for thousands of years.
The wind elements told him they hadn’t dared to get too close.
The dark magic blanketing Nightmare Moon’s body was still thick enough to suffocate elemental forces.
However, they had communicated with the other forest elements that dared draw near the throne—the dust lingering on the stone pillars, the moisture condensing on the armrests, the breeze blowing through the hole in the vaulted ceiling.
From these tiny elemental companions, the wind elements felt a deep, abyss-like sorrow emanating from Nightmare Moon.
It wasn’t a disguise.
It wasn’t a trap.
It was a pure, core-deep sorrow capable of freezing both herself and her surroundings.
Ye Ziji snapped his eyes open.
The easy confidence on his face vanished without a trace, replaced by unprecedented shock and confusion.
He was entirely stunned.
???
He had rehearsed countless reunion scenarios in his head.
He had envisioned her laughing maniacally while spreading terror above Ponyville.
He had imagined her hunting him down with overwhelming fury, or using venomous words to proclaim her reign over the land.
He had prepared for every outcome, laying a dragnet and waiting for the mad queen to step into his trap.
Yet the one thing he had never anticipated was that she would…
sit there spacing out.
“Sad?”
The word echoed in his mind again and again.
*A nightmare who tried to drag the world into eternal night, a queen powerful enough to imprison the daylight—and she’s sitting on a ruined throne, feeling sad?*
Ye Ziji realized that he might not have understood this queen at all.
Facing intelligence that completely overturned his expectations, Ye Ziji scratched his head with a hoof in confusion.
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, he turned to the wind element scouts around him to ask a more practical question.
“Did you find the Elements of Harmony inside the abandoned castle? They’re a few very distinct stones.”
He used his magic to form a rough outline of the Elements of Harmony, passing the mental image to the wind elements.
The wind elements thought for a moment before offering an immediate negative.
They told Ye Ziji that across all the areas they were able to explore—including the main hall, corridors, broken walls, and various rooms—they found no trace of anything resembling those stones.
As for the deeper reaches of the abandoned castle…
Such as the pitch-black basements or locked chambers, they hadn’t dared to enter.
The dark magic in those places was simply too dense, like a congealed swamp that filled elemental beings like them with instinctive terror and repulsion.
After listening, Ye Ziji nodded subtly.
He waved a hoof, signaling for the wind elements to disperse and rest.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Sensing Ye Ziji’s gratitude, the wind elements nuzzled gently against his mane before scattering in all directions.
Now, he could confirm two key facts:
First, the Elements of Harmony had not been found yet.
Second, Nightmare Moon was currently…
grieving.
Instead of rushing into action, he found a clean rock to sit on, closed his eyes, and began pulling up every scrap of information about “Nightmare Moon” stored in his mind.
In his memory space, he walked like a librarian strolling between two massive bookshelves.
On one shelf lay information about “Princess Luna”—whether gathered from the library or from his knowledge of ponies prior to transmigrating.
On the other shelf lay the fresh, vivid memories of his recent personal encounter with Nightmare Moon.
Regarding Princess Luna:
Ancient murals surfaced in his mind one after another.
They depicted a harmonious scene of two Alicorn princesses ruling Equestria together.
The elder raised the sun to bring light and vitality, while the younger raised the moon to bring tranquility and beauty.
The Princess Luna on the mural was an elegant, gentle Alicorn whose eyes were filled with love for the night sky.
Then, the scene shifted dramatically.
“Ponies played to their hearts’ content during the day, only to sleep when night fell.”
“The unappreciated nights bred bitterness and jealousy in Princess Luna’s heart.”
“Dark whispers seized the opportunity, transforming her pain into power.”
“She transformed into Nightmare Moon, swearing to plunge Equestria into eternal night.”
A textbook story of falling to darkness out of neglect.
A simple, direct, standard villain template with clear motivations.
Meanwhile, on the other shelf of new memories, regarding Nightmare Moon:
First memory: Their meeting in the abandoned castle.
She hadn’t started with violence right away.
She had shown immense interest in him, even displaying a high-and-mighty appreciation as she tried to recruit him.
Her words were filled with absolute confidence in her own power, along with a…
deep-seated sense of solitude.
She craved a “peer” who could stand beside her at the peak of the world.
Second memory: Their clash in the sky.
Only after he rejected her recruitment and stung her with his words did her destructive rage erupt.
That anger was laced with the disappointment of betrayal and a hysterical pain from having her deepest wound exposed.
She seemed to utterly detest the word “no,” just as she utterly detested being compared to her sister.
Finally, the intelligence he had just gathered:
She sat alone on her former throne, quietly radiating sorrow.
That was by no means the posture of a conqueror.
She looked far more like a…
lost loser.
Ye Ziji set these two streams of information side by side in his mind.
On one side: “A princess who fell to darkness out of jealousy.”
On the other side: “A powerful, lonely, arrogant queen who craves recognition and is currently very sad.”
Ye Ziji suddenly realized that his previous perception of Nightmare Moon—much like Twilight Sparkle’s—had suffered from oversimplification.
They believed in books, while he had believed in the “villain” label.
*Perhaps what she wanted was never an eternal night after all.*
A speculative thought rose in his mind.
After contemplating for a long while, the fragments in his head continually collided and reorganized.
At last, Ye Ziji slowly opened his eyes, a glint of resolve flashing in his dark pupils.
He made a decision—one that would seem almost insane to an outsider, but perfectly logical to him.
He was going to meet Nightmare Moon!
First, waiting passively was pointless.
Since Nightmare Moon chose to “space out” in the abandoned castle, the trap he had painstakingly set was rendered useless.
Second, the location of the Elements of Harmony was unknown, and as her stronghold, the abandoned castle was currently the most likely place to yield clues.
Finally, and most importantly, an unprecedented curiosity toward this “grieving queen” had taken root in him.
He wanted to know what secrets, thoughts, and inner charm lay hidden beneath that icy black armor.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
“Worst-case scenario, if I can’t handle her, I can always run,” Ye Ziji reassured himself, holding absolute confidence in his own strength.
That confidence was his greatest foundation for taking such a risk.
Having made up his mind, he hesitated no longer.
He revoked the elemental magic masking his aura.
He didn’t conceal his presence, nor did he ostentatiously announce his arrival.
He simply walked toward the dark, ruined abandoned castle, his hoofsteps steady and unhurried.
Around the abandoned castle, the forest and grounds previously swept by the collateral damage of their battle had mostly recovered.
It truly lived up to the name Everfree Forest.
The closer he got, the heavier the cold, oppressive atmosphere became.
Even the last chirps of insects faded until the surroundings grew so quiet that only the rustle of his hooves treading on decaying leaves remained.
The elemental network he had laid out glowed faintly beneath his feet, as if welcoming its master’s return and dispelling much of the encroaching dark magic around him.
When he stepped through the wide-open gates of the abandoned castle…
But unlike his last visit, it was now filled with a tangible, almost physical sense of sorrow.
That heavy atmosphere made the shadows in the corners look deeper than usual and gave the moonlight filtering through the hole in the vaulted ceiling a desolate chill.
His gaze cut across the empty hall, landing directly on the broken throne in the distance.
She sat there, exactly as the wind elements had described.
Nightmare Moon sat quietly on the massive, crack-riddled stone throne.
Her hooves rested casually on the armrests, and her proud head hung slightly, as if staring at an ordinary stone tile on the floor.
Her mane and tail had lost their former luster, flowing dimly and sluggishly.
She looked like a statue drained of its soul, merging seamlessly into the surrounding ruins, filled with a fragile vulnerability completely at odds with her immense power.
Ye Ziji’s arrival didn’t seem to draw any of her attention.
She remained motionless, as if entirely lost in her own world.
Ye Ziji stopped in the center of the hall—the exact spot where he had appeared last time—maintaining a delicate distance from her.
This distance allowed him to observe her clearly while giving him enough room to react immediately if he needed to slip away.
He didn’t speak right away.
Instead, he observed.
He tried to spot traces of the Elements of Harmony on her, but found nothing.
He also tried to spot signs of a trap, but likewise found nothing.
All that emanated from her was pure, unmasked sorrow and solitude.
“Ahem.”
Ultimately, Ye Ziji cleared his throat softly, shattering the suffocating silence.
His voice echoed in the cavernous hall, sounding exceptionally distinct.
That quiet cough was like a stone tossed into a stagnant pool, finally causing ripples across the empty space.
On the throne, Nightmare Moon’s slightly lowered head lifted at an agonizingly slow pace.
Her cat-like vertical pupils flared with emerald green light as they refocused, locking onto the figure standing in the middle of the hall—the familiar yet foreign pony from the East.
The sorrow in her eyes was instantly replaced by an icy vigilance.
She seemed to scrutinize him for a long moment before recognizing the fellow who had escaped her hooves yesterday from his unhurried demeanor.
“How… dare you return?!”
Her voice was still cold, but noticeably tinged with exhaustion, as though she had just woken from a long nightmare.
Hearing those words, Ye Ziji let out half a breath of relief.
*Good, at least this grand lady didn’t blast me out the door the second I walked in.*
As long as she didn’t instantly pulverize him with dark magic and chose to communicate instead, it meant there was room to talk.
His brain spun at ultra-high speed in that split second, flashing through countless contingencies only to reject them one by one.
Probe her?
Too slow.
Provoke her?
Too risky.
Explain?
It would sound like a guilty conscience.
Right then, a thought struck his mind like lightning tearing through the night sky, instantly illuminating his thoughts and sparking his interest.
He decided not to play by the rules—he was going to make a massive gamble!
A total gamble!
Ye Ziji shed all guards, even dispersing the wisp of wind element resting on his hoof.
He took an elegant step forward, lowered his head slightly in a polite bow, and spoke in a tone that blended respect and sincerity:
“Queen of the Night and Moon,” he raised his head, looking straight into Nightmare Moon’s scrutinizing eyes, speaking word by word: “I have come to accept your previous invitation.”
The moment those words were uttered, the air in the hall seemed to freeze solid.
Nightmare Moon’s emerald-green pupils, which had just regained focus, shrank sharply.
The vigilance and exhaustion on her face were instantly replaced by a far more complex emotion—extreme shock, deep suspicion, and a trace of subtle, hidden inner turmoil.
She did not answer immediately.
Instead, she locked her razor-sharp eyes onto Ye Ziji, as if trying to rip his soul from his body to inspect it for any trace of falsehood.
The hall sank into a suffocating silence once again.
This time, Nightmare Moon was the one orchestrating the silence.
Ye Ziji met her gaze openly.
He knew he had rolled the dice; all he could do now was await the outcome.
This was a massive gamble: a win meant a giant step forward, while a loss…
well, that depended on whether the Cosmic (Freebie) Princess had a backup plan.
Regardless, he couldn’t show the slightest hint of cowardice or hesitation at this moment.
“Accept… Our invitation?”
Finally, Nightmare Moon spoke again.
Her voice was colder than before, like ice frozen for ten thousand years in the polar night.
“Are you mocking Us, Ye Ziji? Yesterday, you used every ounce of your strength just to flee. Today, you wish to become Our companion? Do you truly believe We are the kind of fool who can be duped by a few sweet words?!”
She leaned forward slightly, an invisible pressure surging toward Ye Ziji like a tide.
The surrounding shadows seemed to come alive, creeping toward his hooves.
Alright, time for a masterclass in acting.